I just wish more stores carried shaving oils. I'm going to have to start ordering online.

"Better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer."
"Cyberpunk never really gave the government enough credit for their ability to secure a favorable prenup during the Corporate-State wedding." - Shem

GinSlinger wrote:I really need to figure out what to do for/to my beard. Split ends all the way down to the root and grows whichever way it wants these days. Gets washed with shampoo and conditioner about twice a week (so, don't believe it's over washing) and combed a couple of times a day (have been meaning to switch to a natural brush, but man those are expensive).

Any one here with any experience with the various beard treatments? The few times I've tried to investigate the as been like opening the door on hipsterdem, which is followed by my Lovecraftian flight in horror the hell away.

i've been told that beard oil is the shizz but despite having had one for a good 20 years now i have never gone down that road.

though with all this shitty hard water i'm starting to think i should, as my shit is all fucked to shit with shit.

JasonL wrote:I am not the target customer for something marketed as Art of Shaving. It strikes me something like Art of Brushing Teeth or Art of Using TP. Shaving is a lets get this over with sort of affair.

That's a very un-grylliade thing to say. We should have a dozen pages dissecting the merits of shaving with water at different temperatures, vicious arguments over the precise type of razor grip to favor, and tedious banter over specific procedures.

That actually is how the members of the "shaving fora" act . It's really bizarre.

It has the effect of making me want desperately to do the opposite of what Green Day is suggesting I should want to do. Billy Joe Whassname may have created a generation of war mongers. - Jason L

I have been on the internet for the better part of two decades now, and so I should not be surprised that fora regarding how to properly shave one's face are a thing, but I still kind of am. Honestly, the fora I am sure exist for shaving of a more... sexual nature... are a less weird thing to wrap my mind around.

"i say make some popcorn and give me a blanket to hide this six foot boner i have." --dhex

"The difference between Hodor! and Jeb! is that at the end of the day, one of them gets to stop pretending he's retarded." -- Jasper

Timothy wrote:I have been on the internet for the better part of two decades now, and so I should not be surprised that fora regarding how to properly shave one's face are a thing, but I still kind of am. Honestly, the fora I am sure exist for shaving of a more... sexual nature... are a less weird thing to wrap my mind around.

I wonder if these fora are specific to our culture or are popular around the world. I will Google for "Asian" and "shave" and find out. Seems like a harmless enough search term.

"Camacho would be better than Trump. He actually has goodwill towards the world, and he actually did seek out the assistance of the smartest man in the world."
--Fin Fang Foom

Timothy wrote:I have been on the internet for the better part of two decades now, and so I should not be surprised that fora regarding how to properly shave one's face are a thing, but I still kind of am. Honestly, the fora I am sure exist for shaving of a more... sexual nature... are a less weird thing to wrap my mind around.

I wonder if these fora are specific to our culture or are popular around the world. I will Google for "Asian" and "shave" and find out. Seems like a harmless enough search term.

Should be totally safe, safe enough that you should wait until tomorrow then google it from work.

"i say make some popcorn and give me a blanket to hide this six foot boner i have." --dhex

"The difference between Hodor! and Jeb! is that at the end of the day, one of them gets to stop pretending he's retarded." -- Jasper

L-dub is all scolding me for saying he liked the Art of Shaving stuff. He did like the soap, but he thinks the oil is too thick. He has a working hypothesis that unless you use a straight razor, the oil is viscous enough that the way it clogs up your razor cancels out any benefits of using it as a lubricant on your beard. He votes for some kind of thinner oil (or a straight razor, if you're up for that). I would suggest something like Josie Maran Argan Oil, mostly because you can use it anywhere: face (for moisturizer), nails, cuticles, hair, body, etc.

GinSlinger, I was also going to suggest an oil like that for your split ends.

Dangerman, my one suggestion for helping with the ingrown hairs is to exfoliate--are you doing this? If you're not, give it a shot. If you are, what are you doing? General recommendation is to exfoliate as a first step pre-shaving; that could be a better or worse idea depending on other skin factors.

"Fucking qualia." -Hugh Akston

"Privilege is having large phones fit into the garments that society expects you to wear." -Dangerman

nicole wrote:L-dub is all scolding me for saying he liked the Art of Shaving stuff. He did like the soap, but he thinks the oil is too thick. He has a working hypothesis that unless you use a straight razor, the oil is viscous enough that the way it clogs up your razor cancels out any benefits of using it as a lubricant on your beard.

I agree with him, having bought a bottle of AoS oil, tried it several times, got the clogged razor and not only got a bad shave, had to wash off the excess oil and change blades to finish shaving.

Art of Shaving products are pretentious and probably overpriced but certainly no more overpriced than salon products or department store cosmetics. Men use so few toiletries that splurging on something like the aftershave balm seems hardly extravagant to me. It lasts three to six months (four or five tiny squirts are enough at one time) and the results are good. That said, as I also said previously, probably any facial balm/cream would work as well.

JasonL wrote:I am not the target customer for something marketed as Art of Shaving. It strikes me something like Art of Brushing Teeth or Art of Using TP.

There is probably a forum for that, but I'm not going to look for it.

Shaving is a lets get this over with sort of affair.

That strikes me as an unfortunate viewpoint. Sure, there's shaving that is like that. But then, there's also food that is like that. If you are going to eat, you may as well make it enjoyable, and likewise, if you are going to shave, you may as well make that enjoyable.

JD wrote:That strikes me as an unfortunate viewpoint. Sure, there's shaving that is like that. But then, there's also food that is like that. If you are going to eat, you may as well make it enjoyable, and likewise, if you are going to shave, you may as well make that enjoyable.

Wait what? The sooner it's over the more enjoyable it is. Mind you, I appreciate a barber shave with hot lather and a straight razor as much as the next guy. Just nowhere near enough to do that for myself every day. And what exactly is the shaving analogy to French cuisine? Shaving your beard into graffiti? No thanks.

JD wrote:That strikes me as an unfortunate viewpoint. Sure, there's shaving that is like that. But then, there's also food that is like that. If you are going to eat, you may as well make it enjoyable, and likewise, if you are going to shave, you may as well make that enjoyable.

Wait what? The sooner it's over the more enjoyable it is. Mind you, I appreciate a barber shave with hot lather and a straight razor as much as the next guy. Just nowhere near enough to do that for myself every day. And what exactly is the shaving analogy to French cuisine? Shaving your beard into graffiti? No thanks.

My own answer is that, at minimum, you want the shave to be comfortable (or at least not painful) more than you want it over quickly, you want the result to be a close shave but not so close it causes razor burn, you want to do as little damage to your facial skin in the process and, if possible, you want to make the time, effort and tools required to achieve these things as pleasurable and satisfying in and of themselves as possible.

Related: Target-brand Neutrogena-knockoff SPF 15 moisturizer claims to be hypo-allergenic and oil-free and won't clog your pores. Lies. I wore some yesterday and today it looks exactly as though I decided for some reason to paint bright red ovals on my cheeks, except when I touch them they're bumpy.

Luckily, they're fading fast and are already visibly paler than when I woke up this morning, But, holy crap, I am never wearing that stuff again.

"Myself, despite what they say about libertarians, I think we're actually allowed to pursue options beyond futility or sucking the dicks of the powerful." -- Eric the .5b

JasonL wrote:I am not the target customer for something marketed as Art of Shaving. It strikes me something like Art of Brushing Teeth or Art of Using TP.

There is probably a forum for that, but I'm not going to look for it.

Shaving is a lets get this over with sort of affair.

That strikes me as an unfortunate viewpoint. Sure, there's shaving that is like that. But then, there's also food that is like that. If you are going to eat, you may as well make it enjoyable, and likewise, if you are going to shave, you may as well make that enjoyable.

Like I said, I gather there's some kind of something that appeals to other people, but what you just said there is crazy talk I don't even understand. The output of a meal is you ate something yummy or not so go ye apply great arts to make with the yummy. The output of a shave is you have less face hair full stop. Ideally, you have no skin irritation and don't cut yourself and the shave removed most hair it was supposed to remove.

JasonL wrote:Like I said, I gather there's some kind of something that appeals to other people, but what you just said there is crazy talk I don't even understand. The output of a meal is you ate something yummy or not so go ye apply great arts to make with the yummy. The output of a shave is you have less face hair full stop. Ideally, you have no skin irritation and don't cut yourself and the shave removed most hair it was supposed to remove.

I think with anything, be it eating or shaving, you can do the minimum required to fulfill the goals, or you can make it an aesthetically pleasing experience. You could also live in an unfurnished box that does the minimum necessary to keep the weather off your carcass, but most people don't. Like what you said - "yummy or not so go ye apply great arts to make with the yummy" - you can make shaving purely functional, or you can apply your arts to it so your shave is aesthetically pleasing to you on multiple levels. If you don't get it, that's cool; there are people out there who don't "get" yummy food or enjoyable cars, either.

nicole wrote:L-dub is all scolding me for saying he liked the Art of Shaving stuff. He did like the soap, but he thinks the oil is too thick. He has a working hypothesis that unless you use a straight razor, the oil is viscous enough that the way it clogs up your razor cancels out any benefits of using it as a lubricant on your beard. He votes for some kind of thinner oil (or a straight razor, if you're up for that). I would suggest something like Josie Maran Argan Oil, mostly because you can use it anywhere: face (for moisturizer), nails, cuticles, hair, body, etc.

GinSlinger, I was also going to suggest an oil like that for your split ends.

Dangerman, my one suggestion for helping with the ingrown hairs is to exfoliate--are you doing this? If you're not, give it a shot. If you are, what are you doing? General recommendation is to exfoliate as a first step pre-shaving; that could be a better or worse idea depending on other skin factors.

Sure, I'll try stuff. I don't know my skin type, probably oily to normal? Not dry. I get blackheads on my nose and cheeks, and oily proto-pimples in my beard area, and behind my ears/jaw. No dry skin to speak of, and sometimes nothing that bothers me on a daily basis, except for the ingrown hairs.

I would give it a shot. Drugstores: the St. Ives apricot scrub works pretty well for most people, Neutrogena has options there as well, and there's a Burt's Bees one that I find a little bit heavy (doesn't rinse as well as I'd like maybe?) but is decent too. Drugstore but not a "scrub": you could totally opt to try out the "face brush" (http://www.olay.com/skin-care-products/ ... ing-system), and you just use that to soap your face. L-dub loves doing this all over his beard area, so it may be especially good for beard-y issues, but I don't have direct experience. If you want to try higher-end, I do love Lush Ocean Salt, but it's expensive and you might not be able to give it up if you like it.

Also, separate suggestion: if you like the Art of Shaving oil, it's possible that it's still a little too heavy for you (it sounds like you are combination-to-oily). So you might consider changing to a lighter shave oil instead/as well. But I'd give some form of exfoliation a shot before shaving.

"Fucking qualia." -Hugh Akston

"Privilege is having large phones fit into the garments that society expects you to wear." -Dangerman